When I was in college I met a dude named Jake. I wasn’t a freshman, but he was.

The first time I met him I remember there being a lot of noise. Hollering. There was also a rainbow clown wig and a Fender Stratocastor; it was light blue, I believe. Maybe green.

I quickly realized I recognized Jake, he was the drummer for a band, called Shine, later (*see comments) Reflector, and I had heard them a month before and really liked them. Jake played drums.

Jake’s last name is Cardwell, and his dad is Bill Cardwell. They are the Cardwells’ of the famed C&C Drum Company.

The Pitch recently published an article on Bill and C&C, and it brought back memories of me, Steve (who had played in a previous band with Jake) and Jake breaking into the store late at night to pass time and make music.

We would typically buy a couple 12-packs of Corona or Boulevard, then drive to the store where we would each pick out the instrument of our choice and then play until we got bored of the instrument; then we would pick out another. Of course, we would have to put everything back in order just the way we found it and close everything back up before anyone got there to open up.

It does me good to see that C&C is still doing great, and growing leaps and bounds. The Cardwell&s deserve their success. Those guys really do build some of the finest drums you will ever hear.

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I have so much to write about right now, but there just isn’t enough time. Real quick here’s a rundown: Steve the cat has competition for fiercest predator in the hood, Jayhawks gonna run the table, new job update, some movie thoughts, and a goofy photo shoot that I was asked to be a part of. I’ll have to get to all of those over the next week or so.

Right now, though, it is the eve of St. Patty’s day! My buddy Carson Swisher is partly responsible for this wicked funny video involving a drunk leprechaun. Funnier thing is that he and his friend held auditions for the production in his house, and from the looks of it filmed it in his house that he had closed on three days earlier. You can see Carson in the back at one point with a cam in front of his face trying to get out of the way.

I checked on YouTube, the video is up to nearly 5,000 views and the reviews are pretty great. Have fun with the video, made me laugh.

OH! And if you need video production work for anything, you gotta go with Carson. Dude’s p.i.m.p. When you talk to him ask to see his Urban Wakeboarding and Urban Snowboarding videos.

Words I had to look up in this post: Leprechaun, predator and Your Mom.

Steve Wilson is one of my dearest friends in the world. We came up through college together.

After college Steve married Sarah and they moved to Nashvegas so that he could pursue his dream of being a record producer. To make ends meet he cleaned water coolers, picked up trash and various other manual labor type jobs before finally getting hooked up with some of the right folks.

He now produces records full time and I’m very proud of him. Today, though, I couldn’t be more proud of him as I learned that he’s been nominated for a Dove Award!

Dove Awards are given out to those in the Christian music industry who have demonstrated a level of excellence that is well above average in the past year. He was nominated for his part in writing the song “Sound of Melodies” (iTunes link) as performed by the group Leeland in the category of Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year (run on sentence?). He says it’s a little thing, but in truth it is a great honor and he should hold his head high (but stay a little humble, bro!).

Congrats man! You deserve this more than anyone I know. I’m more proud of you than you’ll ever know.

The school teacher that created the amazing little effervescent of goodness and minerals named Airborne, apparently has an amazing house in Malibu. I’m happy for her. That stuff has some serious Harry Potter VooDoo workin’. Two or three of those horse sized vitamin poppers a day, and watch out! I’ve actually gotten to the point where I fill a shot glass with water, plop fizz, wait one minute, then shoot that biz like Spring Break in Cabo! Thank honey, enjoy that Malibu Barbie dream home.

For some reason, this time of year — the “holidays” to the lay person — is the time of year when me and my friends harken back to the days of yore known as Junior High School Church Camp. We all get horrible acne, gripe about how our parents don’t know anything and we overindulge in rousing games of Mafia. This is one of those games that is better accented with the threat of losing clothing, but who really did that in junior high? Maybe Kelly Bechshalmer; she was kinda “that girl.”

Everyone wants to know what I want for Christmas. Yes you do, don’t argue with me. Truth is, I haven’t thought to much about it. Maybe you could help by telling me what you want. Not that I’ll get it for you, but if I get what you want I’ll be sure to send you a picture of me enjoying your Christmas Wish. Fair?

One last question: if you had a podcast, what would the focus be?

Words I had to look up for spelling or usage verification: effervescent & Cabo (really no “h”?).